Cholera update

Hey everyone,

I have been debating for a while wether or not to post this cause I didn't want our families to be nervous, but since it's made international news, I guess that doesn't matter anymore.  Plus, I want to be as honest as possible with this blog.

Cholera has now spread to North Eastern Haiti, and the last I heard is that there has been nearly 60 confirmed cases of it in our local hospital.  Of these, 3 people have died.  I don't know how accurate these numbers are, but this is what I have heard.  I do know that it seems to be way worse Limbe, a town about an hour or so from here.  One of our staff members took a doctor out there a few days ago to help work in a clinic to treat people.  He said that all the clinics and hospitals in that area are over flowing with people.

Today there has been some rioting in Cap Haitien due to the outbreak.  Before I go any further I just want to say that we are on the outskirts of Cap, in the middle of no where, so we are perfectly fine and won't see any effects of this.  Anyway, there are several rumors going around as to why these riots have started.  These are all just rumors, so take them as you like.

The first is that the bacteria was brought in by the UN, and therefor many Haitians want the UN to leave the country.  The other rumor is that one of the candidate running for president brought it in as a way to help his campaign.  Again, these are rumors.

One of our nannies was about 2 hours late to work today because people were throwing rocks and bottles in town and she could not get here safely.  We have also heard that a lot of people are burning tires.  We recently talked to our friends that work at the local hospital, and they are locked inside their compound because there is a lot of rioting there.  Elections are in a few days, so people are kind of stirred up about that as well.

We have enough supplies to hold us for a while and have no need to go into town.  We are going to stay away from Cap until this all clears up and we will be just fine here in Lagossette.

We are all hoping that the rioting stops soon and that this outbreak gets under control soon.  Here is an article that CNN wrote today about all of this.

Thanks for your continued prayers!